The words that changed the life of AHMED
ABDELKHALEK’01 came unexpectedly, while
he was watching the news. A woman stood
on an Oregon beach, lamenting a flood of
waste washed into the Pacific Ocean by the

2011 tsunami in Japan. “Why won’t someonedo something?” she asked, and an idea wasborn. Abdelkhalek, who lives in Florida,realized he could be that “someone.”As a computer scientist trained at NC State,he had the skills to leverage technology tosolve large-scale problems. As an outdoorsenthusiast who grew up swimming and scubadiving off the coast of Egypt, he had an inter-est in protecting rivers and oceans.

He soon discovered the tsunami was onlya fraction of the problem. Across the world,plastic waste—bags, soda bottles, deflatedballoons and the like—pollutes water andchokes wildlife.

Over the past five years, Abdelkhalek, 43,has built Cura Oceanus, a nonprofit organiz-ation that develops smart technologies toremove plastic debris fromoceans and rivers. Mostocean cleanup efforts usenets, but Abdelkhalek hasa more ambitious vision—robots that can findand remove plastics without disturbing marinelife. “It’s always been humans in a boat, andthere’s only so many of us we can put out thereat one time,” he says. “I want to change peo-ple’s idea of what’s possible.”Abdelkhalek gave up a career as a soft-ware engineer to found Cura Oceanus. Hepulled together a group of volunteers anddonors, and they developed the RiverBot, aself-driven submarine that measures just undersix feet in length that serves as a “scout” thatcan distinguish between trash and marine life. Therobot is still in the early stages of development,and Abdelkhalek hopes to eventually build alarger robot that can collect trash.

Abdelkhalek hopes to also use technology
to reduce waste going into oceans and convert
plastic removed from the water into energy. He
says Cura Oceanus “wasn’t about me, it was
about an idea that seemed right for the time,
which was technology working with us to make
our world a better place.” —Kristin Collins

A Technological Trash CollectorAhmed Abdelkhalek ’01 turns to technology to develop smarter waysto keep oceans and other public waters clean.Across the world, plastic waste—bags, soda bottles, deflatedballoons and the like—pollutes water and chokes wildlife.